Substance or Mere Technique? A Precis on Good Faith Performance in England, France and Germany

This paper attempts to offer a concise discussion of good faith performance and other functionally equivalent doctrines in the laws of England, Germany and France. The study’s goal is that of appraising the consistency of existing differences. More specifically, of whether they relate merely to technique - not being paralleled by diverging final outcomes - or whether the rift is deeper and goes to the very substance of the approach to the solution of similar practical problems. For this purpose, the work first shows the close connection between good faith performance (of contractual obligations) and good faith enforcement (of contractual rights), which – it is contended – are simply different perspectives to bear on substantially identical legal questions. The work then proceeds to examine instances in which either of these perspectives is used to solve disputes, and offers an overview of the most frequent approaches, doctrines and provisions used under the three chosen national laws. At the end of the legal analysis, it is concluded that all three systems recognise similar instances as deserving some degree of legal intervention, performed either under the aegis of good faith or through other legal constructs. It is, however, precisely the difference in the nature and breadth of the legal constructs used across jurisdictions that ends up casting uncertainties as to the precise level of agreement of the three systems: differences in technique may indeed translate in divergent substantial outcomes, albeit only in limited cases

A Second Look at the 2007-08 Food Price Crisis: Considering the Impact of Endogenous Dynamics on Food Prices

This paper offers an alternative to the conventional explanation of the 2007-08 food price crisis in terms of escalating demand or dwindling supply. Instead, its focus is on the legal-institutional structure of commodity futures markets, which has witnessed a drastic alteration in the role of speculators. These have transformed from “market makers” (that keep commodity futures markets liquid by arbitraging on price fluctuations) to "market breakers". Index speculation, in particular, has had the effect of muddling information about market "fundamentals" because of the need – brought about by commodity index swaps – for swap dealers to hedge the fluctuations of an index of commodity prices by opening and periodically rolling over long-only positions. This periodical rollover to comply with contractual obligations, rather than in response to anticipated fluctuations in the availability of a commodity in the future, can induce a "contango bias" in the commodity futures market that, in turn, might have given the wrong signals to market operators, leading to a condition of induced (rather than pre-existing) scarcity and to an increase in spot prices in the 2007-08 crisis

A tiny heart beating: Student-edited legal periodicals in good ol' Europe

This paper has a twofold aim: to analyze the possible opportunities disclosed by the observed growth of student- dited law reviews in Europe and to propose an innovative model of student participation to legal publication. The first part explores the phenomenon of student-edited law reviews in the U.S., focusing on its recognized educational benefits. Among others, it is observed that participation in student-edited law reviews might promote greater scholarly maturity among J.D. students, who might in turn be better equipped for a career in the academia after finishing law school, in comparison to their same-age European peers. Hence, there follows an examination of the possible beneficial repercussions that the establishment of student-edited law reviews may yield on the process of faculty education in (continental) Europe, in light of the general practice therein endorsed of academic “apprenticeship” under a mentor. Such benefits may consist, among others, in the enticement of larger numbers of potential academicians and in their possible greater intellectual maturity, providing new meaning to the aforementioned time-honored European practice. The second part of the paper focuses, instead, on the drawbacks brought about by excessive proliferation of student-edited law reviews in the U.S., such as alleged decrease in the quality of published scholarship as a consequence of the superficial quality control that student editors sometimes perform. In view of the foregoing, an innovative model of student publication is proposed, in order to prevent the onset of such drawbacks in Europe, while retaining the above-outlined benefits of early student involvement in academic discourse. It is suggested to complement few, authoritative sources of published scholarship in the form of peer-reviewed journals with student-edited working paper series which, if based on the guideline to provide substantial constructive feedback to authors, could ultimately help foster a quality improvement of published scholarship

Toda joia, toda beleza! Finding what is left in the margins or regime collisions: A pluralist take on managerialism

This paper has two authors, two titles and is written in the form of a dialogue,rather than conveying a unitary voice, as one would instead expect of a coauthored paper. The reason for this is that the articulation of the authors' disagreement, despite the identification of each of them with “the left”, is precisely the object of inquiry. After briefly introducing the problem on which the authors’ discussion takes place, namely regime collisions, and the clash of approaches that are available to (decide whether to) deal with them, a dialogue follows, in which the authors’ voices are clearly separated as they discuss the specific issue of the measurement of quality as a (managerialist) proposal to “solve” regime collisions, and contrast that to more openly politicised views of approaching regime collisions. In the end, the main features of such discussion are examined in such a way as to bring forth the peculiar self-consciousness that pluralist spaces give rise to, weakening and downsizing every point of view that appoints itself as the “higher” vantage point from which to describe the world and enumerate problems, and stimulating a constant oscillation between perspectives. This commitment to a pluralistic confrontation and the ensuing hybridization of perspectives is, we argue, at the heart of the idea of “the left” which we both identify with

Social multi-criteria evaluation and renewable energy policies : two case-studies /

Consultable des del TDXA portada: PhD Programme in Environmental Sciences (Ecological Economics and Environmental Management), Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA))Títol obtingut de la portada digitalitzadaSocial Multi-Criteria Evaluation is a kind of multi-criteria analysis that combines the technical evaluation of different options according to various assessment criteria with the analysis of the social actors' conflicting values and interests. Two main ideas are at the basis of SMCE: technical incommensurability (i.e. in a complex environment one cannot express all impacts of a policy using one only unit of measurement, or, in other words, an inter/multidisciplinary analysis is needed) and social incommensurability (i.e. the social actors have different and legitimately conflicting values and interests, which must be taken into account when evaluating a policy or a project). SMCE was applied to two case-studies. In the first one, the problem at hand was how to provide some isolated rural households in a natural park near Barcelona with electricity, whether by extending the grid or installing stand-alone photovoltaic systems. The issue caused a conflict between 1995 and 2000 among the Park administration (in favour of solar energy) and the household inhabitants and owners, plus the Mayor (in favour of traditional electricity). A retrospective SMCE was performed in order to explain the positions of the involved stakeholders and the factors that help the diffusion of off-grid photovoltaic systems in rural areas. The second part of the thesis deals with the opportunity for the Italian government of supporting a large-scale biofuels production. The pros and cons of satisfying part of the energy need of the transport sector with biodiesel were analyzed through a variety of assessment criteria and taking into account different scales and dimensions

Plan de negocios para la creación de un café bar en la Ciudad de Pereira

En este estudio de viabilidad vamos a conocer a fondo el estudio de mercado para la realización de un café – bar en la ciudad de Pereira. A pesar de la gran expansión en esta ciudad de bares, sentimos la necesidad de enfocarnos en un proyecto que cubra las necesidades de toda persona que busca un doble ambiente. Todos hemos sentido la necesidad de buscar un lugar para poder pasar un rato con nuestros amigos y poder conversar cómodamente en un ambiente agradable, cómodo y que es diferente a todos los demás establecimientos de la ciudad donde el buen servicio y el mejor café serán la mejor carta de recomendación. Así que por medio, de este estudio podremos saber si nuestra idea es rentable o no y como cumplir con todas las exigencias que involucran la iniciación de un proyecto.In this feasibility study we will learn in-depth market research for the realization of a cafe - bar in the city of Pereira. Despite the great expansion in this city of bars, we feel the need to focus on a project that meets the needs of anyone looking for a double room. We have all felt the need to find a place to hang out with our friends and able to converse comfortably in a pleasant, comfortable and that is different from all other establishments in the city where good service and the best coffee will be the best letter of recommendation. So that means, in this study we know if our idea is profitable or not and how to comply with all requirements that involve the initiation of a project

Oedipus is So Bourgeois: ŽIžek and the Mediating Subject

This paper is a review of R.C. Smith's "The Ticklish Subject? A Critique of Žižek’s Lacanian Theory of Subjectivity, with Emphasis on an Alternative". Whereas Lacan places central importance on the Oedipal phase as a necessary step on the road to the acquisition of subjectivity, R.C. Smith views it as a fundamentally authoritarian moment in early child development. This disagreement, in turn, puts Smith at odds with Žižek’s rupture between the Real and the Symbolic, leading him to advance instead an understanding of the subject as engaged in constant mediation in concert with others. The political ramifications of a notion of mediating subjectivity are intensely gripping, for they disclose nothing less than the promise to recover a sense of effective agency – the possibility of making a difference to one’s sociohistorical conditions – from the ruins of the neoliberal deformation of the subject

Socio-Materiality as Phenomenon: Growing Transition Culture

The monograph that forms the basis of this PhD by Publication was published by the University of Plymouth Press and is the copyright of the author, Luigi Russi. A copy is available for reference in the Main Library. Please check the University Library catalogue for details.This thesis innovates on existing literature on the Transition movement by relinquishing stock academic definitions of its ends and means, which purportedly spell out what Transition ‘is’. In its stead, it approaches Transition as phenomenon, namely as an evolving socio-material formation that proliferates a cultural repertoire to sustain a growing range of concerted everyday activities. This is the difference between an instrumental focus, whereby Transition is reduced to a strategy which is oriented towards an unchanging programmatic definition, and an orientational one; the latter attuned to the contingent process by which a movement expresses form and orientation in emergent fashion. The monograph and the introductory chapter contribute to this task in different ways. Everything Gardens and Other Stories undertakes a rich description of various practical realms of Transition and, to capture the coming into being of a phenomenon, it pays particular attention to its developmental trajectory. This entails focusing on the generative movement of the culture of Transition, as it emerges from the attempt to address embodied disquiets originally elicited by information about peak oil and climate change. That initial focus, however, forms merely a station along a path in which new sources of anxiety find validation and prompt further cultural production. The monograph also describes the tensions arising in the process, as a growing body of discursive and material resources have to negotiate an accommodation, in order to become reciprocally recognisable as participant parts enfolded in a common cultural milieu. The introductory chapter supports this account by fleshing out a methodological paradigm that helps direct attention to the unfolding of a socio-material phenomenon in its dilemmatic moments and continual negotiations. For this purpose, starting from canonical sources in phenomenology, it goes on to situate the ‘unfolding’ of a phenomenon in the proliferation of entanglements between actors, human and nonhuman. In the ‘mattering’ of a phenomenon so understood, dilemmatic moments call forth an ethical questioning and an ontological politics immanent to the very process of cultural production. This, it is submitted, is precisely how an orientational focus allows to access Transition as phenomenon, beyond the bounds of academic definitions

Biocarburants, una estratègia poc aconsellable

Daniela Russi, doctoranda del Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica de la UAB, ha realitzat una tesi per estudiar les conseqüències mediambientals de la producció i de l'ús de biocombustibles derivats de cultius "energètics". El treball, "Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation and Renewable Energy Policies", conclou que destinar diner públic per incentivar una producció a gran escala dels biocarburants no és una bona estratègia, i alerta del perill que suposa presentar-los com la vareta màgica per resoldre problemes com el preu del petroli, el canvi climàtic, la seguretat energètica o la contaminació urbana.Daniela Russi, doctoranda del Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica de la UAB, ha realitzat una tesi per estudiar les conseqüències mediambientals de la producció i de l'ús de biocombustibles derivats de cultius "energètics". El treball, "Social Multi- Criteria Evaluation and Renewable Energy Policies", conclou que destinar diner públic per incentivar una producció a gran escala dels biocarburants no és una bona estratègia, i alerta del perill que suposa presentar-los com la vareta màgica per resoldre problemes com el preu del petroli, el canvi climàtic, la seguretat energètica o la contaminació urbana.Daniela Russi, Ph.D. Candidate of the UAB's Department of Economics and Economic History, has made a thesis to study the environmental consequences of the production and use of biofuels. She concludes that using public funding to support a large scale biofuel production is not an advisable strategy